The present invention relates to a photographic process. It particularly relates to a photographic process achieving minimum fog levels and high resolution under high density conditions. Photographic chemical developer formulae for the process are also part of this invention.
The photographic chemical process is essentially the reduction of grains of exposed silver halide to metallic silver according to the equation:
Ag++electron=Ag (metal).
The normal development reduces only exposed grains containing a latent image. In practice, if development is extended over a long enough period of time, all the grains are developed. The development of the latent image is a rate phenomenon, since the development of the exposed grain takes place at a greater rate than the development of the unexposed grains. Due to this phenomenon, the unexposed silver halide may form the basic minimum density on the film base after film development. In order to make a reducing agent be a developer, it must fall within the proper range of reducing agent power. If it is too weak, it cannot reduce silver halide at all. If it is too powerful, it will immediately reduce the unexposed grains as well as the exposed grains.
The basic density produced by the rate phenomenon is named as the Fog Level. It may cause two specific effects if the rate of this density is higher. First, the greater the light opacity rates, the lower the light transmission at those unexposed areas. Second, this greater density will lower the contrast range between the toe and the shoulder of film density scale.
Fog Levels and related criteria are important for the Body Scanner, which forms the subject of U.S. Ser. No. 09/684,340 filed on Oct. 10, 2000. We incorporate that pending patent application by reference. It claims a compact moirxc3xa9 effect body scanner for generating 3-D contour images, the scanner including an elongate projection module having a light source, a aspherical style condenser lens for directing a beam of light from the flash light source with around 1600 to 2000 joules of light intensity through the heat absorptive glass along the first central longitudinal axis, the first optical glass made photographic grid for the beam of light and mounted in a plane at right angle to the first central axis, it allows the light source passing through the equal space monochrome photographic grid plane of high density, this monochrome image is projected onto a body surface to be scanned by wide coverage objective lens, and an elongate imaging module adjacent to the projection module having a second central longitudinal axis parallel to the first central axis, the imaging module incorporating a second objective lens with the same optical design, focal length and aperture as the projection one for receiving deformed style monochrome grid style images reflected from the body, a second photographic grid is the same as the projection one for the reflected light and mounted in a plane at right angle to the second central axis, and an imaging means for recording the reflected deformed grating from the body captured beyond the second photographic grid.
This scanner invention relates particularly to the compact design of photographic 3D body scanner that is capable of forming accurate moirxc3xa9 topographic images from human body surface in the shortest distance, the shortest duration and the lowest cost, as compared to similar products in market. Such technology may be used in other fields such as surgery or pathology where 3-dimensional information is required.
It is also feasible to operate under normal room light condition. The high speed pulse light with visible spectrum is used as a safe light source. The scanner system can capture the 3D human body images in short distance down to 1.2 m quickly. The duration of pulse light is in between {fraction (1/1500)} to {fraction (1/1600)} second. The scanner is physically compact, light weight and relatively low in cost.
The moirxc3xa9 body scanner finds particular utility in selection of garments. Customers of clothing demand well-fitting garments as a fundamental requirement. The success of any retailers, especially an international one, depends largely on their ability to develop products that cater as wide range of consumers as possible. Before this can be achieved, it is essential to know the average body measurements and figure types of the customers. This is usually achieved by conducting extensive human body size surveys, ideally every lo years. Using the existing mechanism, this can be a costly and time-consuming process.
However, with use of the moirxc3xa9 body scanner of the incorporated patent application, the whole process is simplified, the cost is reduced, and the results are accurate and reliable. In particular;
The size of the scanner is small enough for easy transportation and installation, which can be carried around the country to gain regional data with minimum cost and maximum efficiency. It is also ideal to be placed in-store, allowing retailers to carry out survey on xe2x80x98realxe2x80x99 customers in a convenient location and familiar environment.
The simple operating technique means that the scanner can be operated by in-house personnel, and does not require supervision from the developer or supplier.
It is a quick process that requires little time commitment from the subjects being scanned. As a non-contact measurement tool, the results are more accurate and consistent than using a tape measure, and infinitely quicker to obtain, allowing a large amount of data to be captured in a short period of time.
The low cost of the scanner makes it accessible to many retailers who cannot afford to commit an extensive size survey. By owning the equipment, they would then conduct and update their data on an on-going basis, rather than every 10 years. This would enable them to offer right fitting for their customers.
The scanner produces both accurate measurements and body shape information, which is critical for retailers which operate business globally that may require a different base fit depending on location.
In addition to capturing size survey information, the moirxc3xa9 body scanner can provide other potential applications for the retailers and suppliers.
There is the opportunity to scan customers in-store, to give them accurate information on which size they should buy and which garment style are best suited to their figure type. This would be particularly beneficial for intimate apparel and giving customers their size information for electronic shopping.
The scanned image could be used to develop first draft patterns and blocks; to identify the base fit of garments based on the size survey data and average body shape and measurements.
The scanned image could be used to achieve a better understanding and fit to more specialised items, e.g. maternity wear, or clothing for wheelchair-bound customers.
The data could be highly beneficial in developing made-to-measure garments, where patterns are created directly from the scanned image.
The scanner could be operated in indoor environment with not more than 150 lux of ambient lighting condition.
In summary, the moirxc3xa9 body scanner has a potentially wide range of applications that would benefit both the retailers, suppliers and manufacturers. These include the capture of size survey data in both measurement and shape, customer service opportunities and an aid to cater for business development. The differentiating features set it apart from other scanners in that it is easy to transport and install, simple to operate, obtains data quickly and efficiently, and is very low cost, making it accessible to a wide target audience.
For the Body Scanner, a high density parallel grating is made by using Kodak Technical Pan Film (#2415) as high dense with equal space as master grid plane, and by photographic contact transferring onto the Kodak type #160-01 special glass plate, in order to avoid optical aberration and high light-diffraction factor due to the wide angle of light rays and adjacency of a rear nodal point. Since the thickness of light sensitive emulsion layer of #160-10 is less than 5 microns, it decreases the optical diffraction rate and increases the resolution and contrast of the moirxc3xa9 contour; this improves sharpness of both at the center of the frame and around edges of images. The emulsion is coated on a high quality soda lime type optical flat glass base. It is therefore a highly transparent optical glass exhibiting stable dimension having only 1.5mm thick. This will improve image quality and ensure data accuracy. For the best results, to prevent noise resulting from a high fog level index of photographic silver bromide emulsion, a modified photographic film-developing chemical formula is also applied to achieve a high contrast range of 2.80 to 2.90 at Light Opacity Log E, which produces low fog level and increases the resolution. Multi-coating is used on each air-glass surface with a thickness of xc2xc wavelength of the incident light wave within the visible spectrum. This increases the light transmission and reduces reflection rate.
An object of this invention is to provide a new formula of photographic chemical developer allowing the stringent requirements for the high density parallel grating of the Body Scanner to be met. A particular object is to have a contrast index from 2.7 to 2.9 and a low base fog level not exceeding 0.1 (at Light Opacity Log E), when applying photographic film to make high dense grid plane as one of the major element in the Projection Moirxc3xa9 System. Photographic systems meeting these exacting requirements find application in other high resolution photographic procedures.
According to the present invention, we employ a modified developer to develop the image of a fine grain, high contrast range, high resolution black and white film and photographic light sensitive glass with silver bromide emulsion coated. More specifically, we take a commercial developer and adjust the pH towards alkaline, and increase the concentration of developer.